Airtel,Vodafone & Idea Request Government To use CDMA Spectrum For GSM Services

Three of India’s largest mobile networks have requested that a portion of the radio spectrum reserved for CDMA services be re purposed for use by the GSM networks.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular sent a joint letter to the Department of Telecoms.

“We recommend that the 800 MHz spectrum band is harmonies with the international band plan to become part of an “extended” 900 MHz band; this will increase the availability of spectrum in the 900 MHz band by up to 10 MHz (or over 40 per cent),” they wrote.

The CDMA operators also all refused to participate in the recent spectrum auction, citing the high reserve price being set, which was 1.3 times higher than the price for the 1800Mhz spectrum. The government currently plans to take a second attempt at selling the spectrum next year, but the GSM networks feel they could make better use of the spectrum.

“With the diminishing interest of operators in CDMA and the reducing subscriber base of the technology, we believe that we need to harmonies and reconfigure the existing Indian CDMA band in line with the global practice,” the letter said.